Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/141048
. ~ ::;: ~ W Z W ...J U > U It was all true . Th ere were enough rocks to challenging. ~ eep th ings long time. With th e gas problem solved, th e rider o nly had to con te n d with a very s tee p r o cky hill l i tt e r ed with un fortunate s ta lled rid ers and a three mil e-per-hour sec tion that turned out to be a mile -long d esc ent d own what would have been a waterfall if th ere h ad been any water. Mo st riders man aged to co pe somehow, but many lost gobs of poin ts. T he re were virtually no co m p laints about this end uro at all. T h eChap arrals seem ed to hit a per fect level o f diffi cul ty a n d close to perfe ct sche d ules: just sh ort o f impo ssible for the rank Novice an d j us t sh ort of boring for supe r Expert. The scoring was undoubtedly the best ever don e on a Southern California Enduro. The Chaparrals used the "Flip Card" system whereby th e rider's number shows o n a card when he rides in to a check if h e's on time. The number sho wing is marked on the riders card, and it become s a matter of seconds to score hi s card wh en he fin ish es. Mo st rid er s scored their own . There w as a big sbeet of pap er tap ed to the side o f a truck list ing all th e rider's nam es and numbers and as soon as the cards w ere scored the scores were pl aced n ext to the rid er's names o n the sheet. It w as very well done and th e rid ers lo ved it . There'll b e a lot less wo rk for the club to d o this we ek, too. To match th eir scoring sy stem, the club came up with re ally accura te times and distance s. In charge o f th e timing was Expert enduro rid er Carl Price who chec ked his cl ocks for two weeks before the even t , matching them to G .M.T. The most accu ra te clocks (less than 3 0 seconds variation in tw o weeks) were used for the tie -breaking checks. The BU.!'s new desert ranger was on hand to observe the proceedings this weekend, He seem ed to be a friendly and c o op erative fellow who was primarilly conc ern ed with seeing that the cy clist's didn't damage a rare type of cac t us which na been dis covered in the area and wh ich the Sierra Club was quite concern ed about. This ca ctus, call ed the Crucifixion cact us, looks approximately like a five -foot-diameter ball of barb wire excep t that the " b arb s" are three to four in ches long! God help the guy 'wh o rode over that "endangered" species. This cactus was th ought to be practically extinct, and the Ranger 'p oin ted out th at it was only b ecau se the Chaparrals asked to pu t on a ra ce in th e area th at th ey were di scovered. T h e Sie rra clu b however, far from being grateful , is as hostile as ever. G. & L. CYCLES 56 0 So . Arroyo P.arkway Pasadena. Calif . ( 2 13) 6 8 1·3302 NGK Ittu ,. ltd . : ~~ . Torc:o 0' Cut,ol 2-d ,o k e 0 •• - ,~ . P, el to " Pe lt )' Fe nder. - S3 .!1S 530 Cy e le e n •• " - $7 .'~ . 00 )( l ' Kn Ob by 0' Street TIre - S I 3 .'S M X GOI , lo - to2 .'" I!:• . KlOTZ/S... PONE8T0601 P80TEcnOllTOJASH